‘I trust in my club’ – Guardiola speaks on FFP probe

The manager is looking forward to the federation finishing a look into alleged FFP breaches, insisting he has trust in the club.

Pep Guardiola says he has full trust in Manchester City’s operations as he waits for UEFA to conclude an investigation into the club’s alleged Financial Fair Play breaches.

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There have been suggestions that City could be banned from next season’s Champions League if they are found guilty of circumventing FFP regulations.

German magazine Der Spiegel made a number of claims against City last month, based on documents purportedly obtained from whistleblowing platform Football Leaks, which allegedly show the Premier League champions contravened rules on how much money owners are allowed to put into a club.

City dismissed the claims, insisting “the attempt to damage the club’s reputation is organised and clear”.

UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said this week that Europe’s governing body was “assessing the situation” around City, adding: “We have an independent body working on it. Very soon you will have an answer on what will happen in this concrete case.”

Speaking after his side’s 2-1 win at Watford on Tuesday, Guardiola underlined his hopes for a swift resolution.

“UEFA is doing what it is doing. If it found something, the club will make a statement and I like that because we’ll know exactly how we’re going to finish,” he said.

“If there’s something regular, we’ll know it. If we did something not regular, the people can finish to talk about [it].

“I trust a lot in my club, in our organisation. If something is wrong, they are going to tell us.”

Man of the Match, @Mahrez22 was on fire! Any guesses on where he heated up?!

City’s win at Vicarage Road came thanks to goals from Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez, although the result was placed under threat when Abdoulaye Doucoure scrambled home in the 85th minute.

Guardiola urged his players to learn from the scare after they had controlled the majority of the match.

“In the last minutes, anything could have happened, but we played 65, 70 minutes at a top, top level, so aggressive. We had many, many chances,” he said.

“Last season, we won against Southampton [in the] 95th minute and West Ham [in] the last minute. That’s football: you can’t expect when you’re away and you don’t score the third goal and concede one that you don’t suffer.

“Anything can happen in this kind of game but, okay, in general, three quarters of the game was good.

“You can never forget to play. Until the last second, [when] the referee decides to go home, you have to play and play and play.”

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Sergio Aguero again missed the game due to injury, and Guardiola conceded he is not yet sure if the striker will be fit for Saturday’s trip to Chelsea.